LAHORE, Sept 26: Participants in a conference have unanimously urged the Punjab government to prioritise child rights in order to protect children in the province.

The conference titled “Child protection issues in Punjab” was jointly organised by the Actionaid-Pakistan and the Child Rights Movement (CRM) at a local hotel on Thursday.

CRM (Punjab) Coordinator Nazir Gazi while sharing the objectives of the conference condemned the growing number of child abuse cases in the province. He condemned the child rape case in Lahore and sought immediate arrest of those involved in the crime.

Arshad Mahmood (Director Advocacy and Child Rights Governance) of Save the Children briefed the participants about the state of child protection in Punjab.

“According to an NGO report, 2,500 cases of child abuse are reported in the media annually which makes it eight cases a day and this is just a tip of the iceberg. Similarly, there were more than 45 reported cases of torture and abuse of child domestic workers since Shazia Masih’s case in January 2010, which also resulted in death of more than 20 children mostly in Punjab,” he said.

Mr. Mahmood demanded a ban on Child Domestic Labour under the schedule of banned occupations of the Punjab Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011. He also demanded that the Punjab government establish the Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child through an Act of the Assembly to work for the promotion and protection of child rights in the province and take effective steps for the prevention of child abuse.

Tanvir Shehzad, a journalist, highlighted the importance of close coordination between media and civil society over social issues.

He recommended that CRM should work closely with journalists, organise journalists’ training and field visits so that media’s focus could be diverted towards child protection issues.

Husain Ali Sina, child rights adviser (Plan Pakistan), briefed the participants about the importance of child protection system. He said it was very important to establish a child protection system linking state mechanism with communities to prevent growing violence and abuse against children.

MPA Dr. Nausheen Hamid of PTI said there was a dire need to create awareness among MPAs about child rights. She also highlighted the importance of budgetary allocation for child protection.

MPA Hina Parvez Butt of PML-N said the media should be very careful about reporting child abuse cases. She highlighted how parents were using children for begging. “The children’s condition in prisons is worst. We should wake up as a society and work together to create awareness about child rights legislation.”

She made a commitment that the Punjab Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill would be tabled in the provincial assembly soon.

Actionaid’s Programme Officer Ms Ashima emphasised the need for structural reforms in the existing mechanism/system to protect child rights.

Child rights activist Iftikhar Mubarik demanded that the government should establish a task force on child rights involving MPAs and civil society to make recommendations for policy and legislative changes about child rights.